


"The Skinny Male" - Or, My Daughter's Best Friend

by loops



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Good Dad Jack, Slender AU, ludicrous amount of AU and bullshittery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 03:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8187340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loops/pseuds/loops
Summary: Social services had been telling him to get his daughter to socialize, Jack thinks with a shrug. But he really doesn't think that this is what they meant.Collection of Slender AU drabbles with eventual Rhack elements. Rating may skyrocket up in an update or two. Some drabbles are kind of very, very short.





	1. Introductions

"Angel!" Jack called up the stairs, frowning as she giggled. "Angel, what are you doing up, sweetheart?" he asked as he started stomping up the stairs, shaking his head in frustration, "It's almost midnight, you should be in bed."  
  
"But Daddy!" Angel whined, running ahead of him into her room, throwing herself against the king-sized bed and cuddling against her spiderant plush. "He only comes at midnight!"  
  
"Who only comes at midnight?" Jack asked with a sigh, plopping himself onto the bed beside her and gathering her up into his arms. "No one does that. That's when you should be asleep. I should sue him for waking you up!" Jack tousled her hair, making her kick her legs and laugh.  
  
"My friend, daddy! Stooop!" She pushed Jack away as he waggled his brows at her, "He only comes at midnight!"  
  
"Well this 'friend' is a dumdum." Jack stood dramatically from the bed, (gently) dropping Angel back onto the cushions. He flicked on her nightlight, moving to turn off the room's lights.  
  
"Daddy! You're a dumdum!" Jack slapped a hand over his chest, gasping dramatically and staring at Angel.  
  
"Angel, how dare you!" He moved his hand to dramatically slap over his forehead, leaning back, "My own angel! Saying these things to me!"  
  
Angel threw herself off of the bed, hugging her father's leg tightly as he dramatically tried to walk away. "Daddy no, I didn't mean it!" Jack had to hold back a laugh as he kneeled down, meeting Angel in the eye.  
  
"Did you really not mean it?" He asked as Angel put her hands behind her back and giggled, nodding. "Did you reeeaaallly?" She laughed, holding out her hand for a pinky promise. "Fine, I accept your apology, Angel---If you promise me something back," Jack said before linking his pinkie with hers.  
  
"What's that, Daddy?"  
  
"That you'll go to bed."  
  
Angel let out a loud groan, stomping back to her bed, climbing back on. "Fine see! I'm in bed!" Jack slapped a hand to his forehead, slowly dragging it down.  
  
"Fine," Jack finally relented, dragging his feet to sit down next to his daughter, "But if your friend doesn't show up, you promise you're going to bed at a normal time, ok princess?"  
  
"He's gonna come! He comes every night!" Angel grumbled defensively, wringing the blanket in her hands. Jack snorted, shoving the joke on his tongue far, far away before kicking off his shoes and laying down next to his daughter.  
  
"Sure, sure," he nodded, running a hand through her hair, "I can't wait to meet this little rascal who's been keeping my Angel up." He narrowly avoided the pillow thrown at his head.

* * *

  
  
Truth be told, Jack had fallen asleep. Hey, listen, he had an excuse--he made sure to buy Angel the most comfortable matress, quilt cover, and pillows that were sold in any of the Edens. Not that his bed was any less absolutely awesome, but hey, he was here, it was warm, etc etc whatever he's Handsome Friggen Jack. He slapped at the small hands shaking him awake, swearing to take away the dessert of whoever was doing this cruel torture on him, cracking an eye open at Angel's dramatic 'Noooo'.  
  
"What is it, baby?" He finally asked, pulling himself upright amongst the tower of pillows.  
  
"He's here!"  
  
"Uh, who's here?" Jack almost winced at the affronted way Angel looked at him. Almost.  
  
"My friend! Rhys!" She said, crossing her arms before immediately uncrossing them to jump off the bed. "Rhys! Daddy bought me a new game we can play!" she yelled, running over towards the closet.  
  
Jack was just about to be affronted at the fact that her friend was hiding in the _closet_ and had such a dumb name. Who does that? Angel could've at least asked for a bed for her imaginary friend. And a less stupid name. When his eyes followed her over to the corner, however, all of the words died in his throat. There was someone there, alright. Well, not someone so much as a something. A someone would have a face. And not be eight feet tall, with tentacles slowly swirling behind its body. "A-angel," Jack coughed out, quickly moving off of the bed and reaching for his daughter, "That's no friend."  
  
"Don't be rude!" Angel yelled at him, pouting and pulling her arm out of his reach, "He's a good friend! He plays with me all of those games you keep buying with me but are too busy to actually play, you jerk!" At that she spun back around, wrapping her arms around the... thing's leg. Jack's hand immediately went to the holster on his hip, pulling out a pistol, ignoring the small voice telling him that it was already too late. The creature's blank face followed him, watching his hand move down to his hip before making eye--face. face contact. Head contact? It was looking at him, basically.  
  
The creature knelt down, putting its arms around the small girl, the silhouetted body gaining some clarity against her color. One arm seemed... as normal as a weird faceless creature's arm could be, but the other was mangled, the... skin? torn and deformed. Angel giggled into where its ear should have been, whispering it a secret. The creature pulled back in mock shock, moving a hand in front of its face.  
  
"See daddy, you hurt his feelings!" Angel turned back, smirking triumphantly at her father. "C'mon, let's go play and leave this old meanie!" She grabbed one of the creature's hands, pulling it towards the game stand. Its face lingered on Jack as it was pulled away, before turning down at the board game that Angel was showing it.  
  
Jack stared in amazement, hand slowly moving away from the gun on his hip. His arms crossed as he stared on thoughtfully, trying to decipher what, exactly, was going on. "So, uh, you're a friend with a slenderman, huh kiddo?" he asked Angel, frowning at her nod. He moved closer to the pair, taking note of the way the figure flinched as he stepped close to it, tentacles rapidly and soundlessly whipping about.  
  
"Dad!" Angel yelled, making Jack jump out of his trance, "You're scaring him!" Jack recovered, forcing a smirk onto his face.  
  
"Well, does he have something to hiiiide?" he asked in a singsong voice, putting a hand on the creature's shoulder. He froze, staring down at the shoulder in his grip. He ran his thumb up and down on the strangely smooth surface, nothing like the fabric texture of the suit he expected. "Are... Are you naked?" The creature whipped its head to look at him. "You're friggen' naked." His grip on the shoulder tightened, and he pulled it up off its knees sharply.  
  
"You're not playing board games with my daughter naked!" Jack yelled, affronted, his daughter giggling at the sight, and the creature blushing awkwardly. "My god Angel," he turned to her, pointing a finger, "How could you! Leaving your poor guest naked!" He stormed out, leaving a laughing angel and a very, very perturbed creature in the room. Not moments later he returned, a bright orange sweater and shorts in his hands.  
  
"Put these on, Jesus Christ," he grunted, throwing them at the creature, whose tentacles fwapped against the wall in shock. It quickly dragged the garments on.  
  
Jack leaned back against the drawers, crossing his arms with a small smile on his face as he watched the ridiculous way the tentacles were trapped under the waistband of the sweater. Well, while it wasn't exactly the socialization he wanted for his precious little angel, he supposed it was better than nothing. "So what the heck are you two nerds playing, anyways?"


	2. Repersonalization

It was pretty weird, to be honest. The whole... "My daughter finally got a friend but it's a slenderman", thing. Like, sure, people have survived run-ins with them before, but usually they'd just skeedaddle afterwards. This one though, this one stayed. Jack had complained enough at the both of them that it even began coming earlier, no longer keeping Angel past her bedtime.  
  
It was strange, talking to a thing without a face. Especially since it still looked... Sad? Jack would stand and watch the two play games, arms crossed and leaning against the wall. He still didn't trust the thing around his daughter. And sometimes, just sometimes, when Angel ran off to get another game, or had to go to the bathroom, it would slouch, looking down at its hands. And in those moments, Jack knew (he didn't know how he knew) it was upset. Jack would cough, and it would jerk back upwards, as if remembering he was in the room, and the feeling would go away.  
  
After the third time that happened, Jack started reading into the mythos. He had an entire company focused on the undead and supernautral and how the hell to kill them; he knew he could find something about slendermen, as avoided as they were.  
  
It took months.  
  
It took months, but finally they were here. Angel had gone off to take a bath, and the visitor and him were alone. Jack had told it what he found, and it nodded. It seemed excited, so they carried through with it.  
  
It disappeared.  
  
Jack clenched his hands, staring down at the empty seat where it--no, he'd--been sitting.  
  
"Daddy?" Angel's voice pulled him from his stupor, and he looked up to see her holding one of her bath toys, dressed in a gown. "Where'd Rhys go?"  
  
"He had to go, baby," he said with a forced smile, "Left the stove on."  
  
"Oh," Angel said, pausing to yawn, "I didn't know he cooked. He should cook us dinner."  
  
"He should," Jack nodded, standing to lead her to the bedroom, "I'll tell him when he comes back."  
  
But the visitor--Rhys, Rhys didn't come back for a long time. Jack started to feel sick. Did something go wrong? Did he kill him?  
  
Weeks passed. It was late; Jack had been sitting at the dinner table, typing away on his ECHO to clean up the mess that some of his idiot workers had made. Angel already had gone to bed, although not without a lot of complaining that her friend didn't stop by for so long. There was a gust, making Jack shiver in his boxers, before it suddenly occured to him that something had sat down across from him.  
  
No, not something, someone. He slammed down the echo, a wide smile on his face as he looked at the slenderman across from him.  
  
It'd worked. Not completely, but it was a start. He was still white, deathly so, but he had a _face_ now. A very cute one, Jack noted, scanning over the features. He only had one eye, and Jack wondered whether he was just like that or if it was because they did something wrong. But the one that was there? It was a faded brown, glittering with a hope that Jack hadn't seen previously. What used to be a bald scalp had similarly brown locks, meticulously shaped into the most douchey haircut that Jack had seen in years. But the most interesting feature? He was smiling.  
  
"Hey," Jack said, finally breaking the silence.  
  
Rhys stared at him, eye flitting around his face, to his eyes, to his lips. And finally, for the first time...  
  
"Hi."  
  
_(Angel stormed down minutes later, having been woken up when Jack slammed down his echo. She screamed when she saw Rhys, throwing herself at the slender man and taking his cheeks in her hands. "You're so cute!" she yelled as Rhys just kind of let her squeeze his face, making the best fish impression Jack had seen in years. She asked if he cooked anything for them, and Rhys looked at Jack in confusion. Jack shrugged in defeat.)_  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art: [here](http://totallyjadoe.tumblr.com/post/151247522229/from-this-fic-that-i-just-uploaded-i-just-got-a)


	3. Hatred

"Why d'you hate Dahl so much anyways, kiddo?" Jack asked one day over a bottle of beer, surprised by the slenderman's attitude. "I mean, it's fun to grind their stock into the ground, but it's not like the dead care very much."

Rhys' voice came out scathing, filled with a static hatred that had Jack reeling. "They took everything from me," he said, raising his head to stare Jack down. A small grin crawled across his face, never really reaching his eye, "I'll make them pay for that. I'll make them pay."

Jack let his chair fall back onto four legs, pushing himself off to walk towards Rhys, who was shaking in rage, left hand wrangling his mutilated one. Rhys whipped his head to the side, staring furiously at the ground and worrying his lip between sharp teeth, and Jack involuntarily stared at the small hole in the kid's temple. Kneeling down to be at eye level with Rhys, he brought up a hand, thumbing the hole that passed all the way through the kid's head. "We'll," he corrected, moving his hand down to grab Rhys by the chin and turn him to meet Jack's eyes, "We'll make them pay, Rhysie."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, the shorted chapter of them all, but the one with actually the most plot...


End file.
